MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI ESCAPES ARREST IN KYIV AND CONVENES A NEW RALLY

After being arrested by Ukrainian Security Service, Saakashvili was extracted from their vehicle blocked by his supporters and escorted to the Parliament

December 5, Kyiv

This morning saw Security Service employees entering the apartment of Mikheil Saakashvili on Kostelna Street in Kyiv center. Attempting to win some time, Saakashvili fled to the roof and called for his supporters to ‘prevent his kidnapping by Poroshenko’, also promising to jump if needed. As he was captured and dragged downstairs (after being handed suspicion in supporting criminal organizations), people gathering near the building started confronting the rapidly increasing police squads. Saakashvili was put in a vehicle, but protesters flooding the adjacent street blocked the road with an impromptu barricade composed of miscellaneous items (trees, dumpsters, cobbles etc.). Jammed in the crowd, the immobilized vehicle was forcibly opened. Saakashvili was finally freed and accompanied to the square overlooking the Parliament building, where his followers had been residing for the last 1,5 months protesting against corruption. However, after his recent escape Saakashvili quickly changed the agenda and now demands Poroshenko’s impeachment calling him together with Ukrainian oligarchs ‘Putin’s allies’.

Saakashvili dragged to the vehicle by Security Service workers

Mikheil Saakashvili is the former governor of Odessa region stripped of Ukrainian citizenship by President Poroshenko for (reportedly) concealing previous conviction. Upon his illegal return to Ukraine in September, Saakashvili has been touring Ukraine with a political program consisting of demands to Ukrainian government. Claiming to possess no political ambitions, he has been leading the protest camp at the capital center since October. NewsOne, a local TV channel and one of the few media covering the event had been blocked by unknown radicals a day before.